World News

Generally speaking, gender equality in the U.S. and other Western countries has involved women moving into men’s spheres.  We have not seen an equivalent migration of men into women’s spheres.  Accordingly, while women have integrated many male occupations (they are now, for example, 50% or more of law and medical students), many female-dominated ones remain heavily female.

A brief personal perspective

A number of years ago when I was teaching English to students of other languages in Hong Kong, I did some work for an internation kindergarten. My job was to create a programme to promote language for children who were about to leave for primary school. Having taught children of all ages at primary and secondary levels, I particularly enjoyed my time with the kindergarten group and decided to pursue a career as an early childhood teacher.

A new scheme has been set up to help encourage more men to enter the childcare profession in Lancashire.

The Lancashire Men in Childcare Network has been established by Andrew Clifford, managing director of the First Class Childcare Group, which has bases in Barrow, Whalley, Accrington and Clayton-le-Moors.

My husband recently moved abroad with work, returning on average for a week every month. We joke that he’s a tourist in the family, but it’s not always funny.

The Ministry of Education appears at a loss as to how to resolve the chronic shortage of male teachers, a challenge hampered by both red flags and red tape.

Despite a public relations offensive from the ministry, the number of male teachers in both primary and secondary schools has continued to drop during the past 10 years.

History was made this week, as Noirin O'Sullivan became the first woman ever appointed Garda Commissioner. This means the country's top two justice jobs are now occupied by women. Is the move towards gender balance in the workplace finally getting under way?

One of the guidelines issued to schools by the Department of Public Instruction, following an increase in cases of sexual assaults, was mandatory police verification of all male staff in schools.

Steps include ascertaining the antecedents of the teacher, by conducting background checks with their neighbours. These measures initiated by the Police has put the staff in an embarrassing situation, allege teacher associations. The male teachers were being stigmatised, they contend.

The Government should do more to encourage boys and men to work in the childcare sector, according to a new briefing by the Fatherhood Institute.

The document calls on the Government to require careers advisers to actively promote childcare jobs to boys and men, while supporting girls and women in choosing careers that are not traditionally considered ‘female’.

Childcare Management Company (CMC) has secured Youth in Partnership World (YIP) as its partner for a new project addressing the extremely low number of male workers in the childcare sector.

President Anthony Carmona is again calling for more male teachers in classrooms throughout the country.

He pleaded for the authorities in the education system to address the matter yesterday. His words came during the ceremony for President's Medals for achievers in Education at President's House in Tobago.

Look around at your local child care centre and see if there are many men. Most likely there will be none, perhaps if you're lucky one or two. Should there be more men looking after our young children? And if there should be more, why aren't there?

Craig d'Arcy

February 13, 2013

New Zealand’s early childhood education system is one of the most sexist in the world with far too few men teaching in the sector and the Government has no immediate plans to correct the imbalance.

This does not surprise Dr Sarah Farquhar, whose Massey University research in 1997 first revealed problems for the early childhood education sector of men not being encouraged into teaching and supported to remain in teaching.

Climbing the corporate ladder can be tough, especially if you're a woman, but there are an increasing number of men finding it hard to break into traditionally female-dominated professions.

There's vigorous debate about whether there should be quotas to boost their numbers on boards and, as advocates continue to seek a fair go for females, what happens to men in jobs dominated by women?

While being a male elementary school teacher in today's world isn't exactly blazing any new trails, they're still a rare commodity in what is still a predominantly female-dominated occupation.

Male teachers are being alienated from working in the country’s primary schools, largely by the societal stigma that portrays them as paedophiles, according to new research.